Three key words for the machine tool industry in 2025: intelligence, greening and substitution of domestic production 

By 2025, China's machine tool industry will enter a critical period of high-quality development. The China Machine Tool and Tool Industry Association (CMTBA) recently identified three major trends—intellectualization breakthrough, environmental transformation, and accelerated substitution of domestic equivalents—to formulate a new vision for industrial upgrading.

Smart technologies: from “connecting devices” to “empowering data”

Intelligent technologies in the industry are no longer limited to individual machine automation, but embrace a full lifecycle digital ecosystem. Leading companies accelerate adoption: Shenyang Machine Tool's i5 series uses sensors to collect real-time equipment data and optimize processing parameters based on artificial intelligence, improving overall equipment efficiency (OEE) by 25%. Qinchuan Machine Tool has partnered with Huawei Cloud to create an industrial Internet platform that connects more than 200 upstream and downstream suppliers, reducing order processing time by 40%. By 2025, more than 60% of capital equipment in enterprises larger than their size is expected to be digitally connected.

Sustainability: Low carbon emissions throughout the supply chain are becoming an imperative.

With dual goals of reducing carbon emissions, greening has moved from simple energy conservation and consumption reduction to a low-carbon, life-cycle approach. Kede's five-axis CNC machines use magnetically levitated electric spindles, reducing energy consumption by 35%. Guosheng Zhike's "Machine Hospital" processes more than 5,000 refurbished machine tools every year, which is only 50% of the cost of new ones. In addition, this year China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will publish Green Manufacturing Assessment Standards for the Machine Tool Industry, which will promote stringent metrics such as material use and recyclability.

Replacement of domestic equipment: qualitative transition from “suitable to effective”

The replacement of domestic equipment accelerates market penetration of high-tech products. Huazhong CNC's HNC-848D system has been installed on more than 10,000 five-axis machine tools, achieving international precision levels. Domestic machine tools account for more than 40% and 60% of COMAC C919 and CATL production lines, respectively. User reviews: “Domestic equipment performs as well as imported equipment, with faster service and lower costs.” The share of imported machine tools is expected to drop to less than 35% by 2025.

In the machine tool industry of 2025, intelligence will make equipment “smarter,” green development will make development “more sustainable,” and substitution of domestic components will make the production chain “safer.” As Mao Yufeng stated: “Behind these three keywords lies a qualitative shift in China’s machine tool industry from ‘advantage of scale’ to ‘advantage of technology and ecosystem’.” In the future, we are confident that we will have a more prominent position in the global market for high-end machine tools.”